Jail Population Management: Elected County Officials’ Guide to Pretrial Services (2009)

Abstract

Elected county officials have unique oversight of and responsibility for the local criminal justice and social services systems. This allows them to construct policies that account for improvements in both systems at the same time. There is an opportunity present to impact the pretrial population at the jail, and do so without unnec- essarily endangering public safety and without usurping the roles of other governments or their of- ficials. This document provides a set of recommendations that can ensure local resources are wisely used and that residents are pro- tected from both victimization and wasteful spending.